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The objective of the paper was to study the drinking and other related behavior of dairy cows (Bos taurus). There were 142 Holstein dairy cows observed and compared in this study. The experiment was designed on the basis of two different housing systems (wet pad with forced ventilation cooling house and open house); two different seasons (winter and summer); four different stages (high milk yielding cows, low milk yielding cows, dry cows, and heifers); and grouping (home and visitor animals). All cows had free access to water. Dairy cows spent 13.8 min/day drinking in wet-pad house and 11.7 min/day in open house. However, there was no significant difference in the duration of water drinking between these two housing systems (p>0.05). The water consumption was significantly higher in wet-pad housed animals (68 L/day) than open-housed animals (31.5 L/day) (p0.05); both home and visitor animals spent almost the same time in drinking water. A strong significant interaction between season and time during the day was found (p0.05). There was, however, a significant difference in water drinking activity found in dry cows, which spent less time in drinking at 8.2 min/day (p<0.05).
Lainez et al. (Thu,) studied this question.